Visitors buy traditional Chinese medicine products at the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services, Shougang Park, Beijing, on Sep.3, 2023. (PHOTO: VCG)

By TANG Zhexiao

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played a vital role in the construction of the Health Silk Road and promoting the building a global community of health for all in the past decade.

Yu Yanhong, Party chief and director of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said this during the 6th Belt and Road Forum for TCM Development.

The forum, regarding as one of summit forums of the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services, was held on Sep.6 to promote TCM exchange and cooperation of TCM along the Belt and Road countries. 

Government officials from home and abroad, academicians and representatives from international organizations, shared opinions about scientific and technological innovation of TCM.

“Traditional Chinese medicine is a treasure of Chinese culture, a carrier of cultural exchanges and mutual construction between China and other countries,” said Zhao Fengtao, vice-chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency. Gaining recognition and popularity in the global community, China will use modern science and technology to empower the development of TCM, integrate it into the Belt and Road, and promote the TCM's participation in global health governance, Zhao noted.

Martin Taylor, the new World Health Organization representative to China, gave the example of  Tu Youyou, the Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist who won the Nobel Prize for her work in helping to create an anti-malaria medicine. He believed, the world can learn from Chinese medicine and achieve new breakthroughs from it.

Today, TCM is practiced in 196 countries and regions, according to Huang Luqi, president of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Thirty TCM centers have been jointly established with countries along the Belt and Road.

China has signed bilateral agreements on TCM cooperation with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Brazil and other countries, working together with the rest of the world to promote the building of a global community of health for all, according  Huang.

Besides providing high-quality TCM services and related products to people in Belt and Road countries, China also sent medical teams. In May this year, China's TCM team was awarded the Knight Medal of the Kingdom of Cambodia by the Cambodian Ministry of Health, for its work to combat the pandemic.